In Part 2, BOB FERRIS continues the story of Ruby Armfield, a chorus girl with J.C. Williamson’s musical comedy productions.
The Productive Years – 1905 to 1910 (cont.)
The farewell season of Williamson’s Comic Opera Company of July 1906 in Wellington was a fitting finale to a triumphant tour of New Zealand wrote theatre critic Lorgnette, and demonstrated the strong appeal of comic opera for theatregoers. Ruby contributed to this artistic success.
By early August Ruby was in Brisbane with the Gilbert and Sullivan Repertoire Company which opened the season with Veronique and followed with a full repertoire of Gilbert and Sullivan works. Ruby again played minor parts which attracted little press coverage, although in Patience, Ruby as Ella, together with Dolly Castles, Aggie Thorn and Vinia de Loitte were described as ‘picturesque and pleasing’.1
The following September the Repertoire Company commenced a three-week season at Her Majesty’s Sydney, performing Utopia Limited for first time in Sydney. The whimsical show sends up English Institutions and conventions and also follows the desire of the King of a south sea island to govern his Utopia along English lines. While Sydney reviewers generally thought there was much to like about the production, for some it was too satirical, and as expressed by The Sydney Mail:
It requires the exercise of too much brain power to fully appreciate the satire and people who go to comic opera don’t usually want to do any thinking.2
Ruby had a small part as Melene, one of the ‘beauteous and gaily attired maidens of Utopia’, and is mentioned in the review by The Don of Punch when she, Vera Buttel and Blanche Farey were said to be studies in artistic decoration as the Utopian maidens.3
In other shows during the season Ruby played Eliza in Veronique and Fiametta in The Gondoliers.
Williamson’s newly named Comic Opera Company appeared in Perth on 1 October for an eighteen-night season at the Theatre Royal, and then at His Majesty’s Theatre in Kalgoorlie. Ruby was cast in her usual minor parts—Melene in Utopia Limited, Ernestine in The Little Michus and Eliza in Veronique. But it was in Princess Ida in her role as Melissa, one of the girl graduates and the daughter of Lady Blanche, that she received an ‘honourable mention’.
Ruby had replaced Aggie Thorn in the part as Thorn didn’t tour the West due to ill-health. As Melissa, it was an ideal opportunity for Ruby to show her versatility and acting skill and she didn’t disappoint, earning praise in reviews with the critic from the Western Australian paper describing her as a charming Melissa and that her duet with Celia Ghiloni (Lady Blanche), ‘Now wouldn’t you like to rule the roast and guide this University?’ was well done and enthusiastically re-demanded. Ruby’s other singing segments were also praised, including her quintet with the other girl graduates and the concerted piece with Lady Psyche, Hilarion, Cyril, and Florian, and particularly her solo with the chorus at the commencement of Act III—(death to the invader)—‘thus our courage, all untarnished, we’re encouraged to display’.4
Ruby’s performance as Melissa was also applauded when Princess Ida was performed in Kalgoorlie, late October. The Kalgoorlie Miner reported that Miss Celia Ghiloni as Lady Blanche, ‘The professor of abstract science’: Miss Vinia de Loitte as ‘professor of humanities’ and Miss Ruby Armfield as the daughter of Lady Blanche were among the principal denizens responsible for a great deal of the enjoyment afforded by the performance.5
Vinia de Loitte in Princess Ida—photo by Talma & Co., Melb. & Syd.
Private collection
A season of 12 nights at Adelaide’s Theatre Royal opened mid-November 1906 with the Comic Opera Company’s performance of Veronique. Ruby played Eliza and she, together with Madge Griffiths (as Zoe), Mignon Ashton (as Irma) and Lena Bergin (as Heloise) were described by the press as ‘blithe, bonnie and harmonious’.6 And, at one performance of Veronique, Ruby substituted for Vinia de Loitte’s part of Sophie; while it was a small part, she played it pretty well wrote the Adelaide Gadfly.7
Sketch from The Blue Moon—Reginald Kenneth with the chorus of Burmese girls. Photo by Talma, Melbourne & Sydney. State Library Victoria, Melbourne.
Williamson’s New Musical Comedy Company, a grouping of leading local and overseas artistes, with a chorus of local talent, began its life with the Australian premiere of the bright Burmese musical comedy The Blue Moon at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre on 22 June 1907. The piece was packed with catchy musical numbers by Paul Rubens which provided much involvement for Ruby and sister chorus members, including the opening chorus—‘You’d Better Come to Burmah’, ‘The Crocodile’ with Victor Gouriet (Moolraj), ‘Burmah Girl’ with Reginald Kenneth (Capt Jack Ormsby), and ‘The Major’s the Pet of the Ladies’ with Myles Clifton (Major Vivian Callabone).
Cast for Lady Madcap from program, Melbourne, August 1907
State Library Victoria, Melbourne
Cover of vocal score for Lady Madcap, published by Chappell, 1905
University of Rochester
The Melbourne season continued with the premiere of Lady Madcap, a musical comedy in two acts, also with music by Paul Rubens. After Melbourne, the Company played in Bendigo and Ballarat before staging the Adelaide season on 30 August, then Western Australia and Sydney in November.
In Lady Madcap, Ruby appeared as one of the gorgeously dressed Archery Ladies in Act 1 who were among the guests for a night of revelry arranged by Lady Betty (the Madcap) at Egbert Castle.8 The group presented the ‘Archery’ song, described in reviews as a ‘pretty’ item, with the refrain whistled by their military admirers: ‘we are little ladies who are keen on shooting with an arrow and a bow’.
In another first the Company staged the Three Little Maids for the first time in Ballarat (at Her Majesty’s Theatre), where Ruby, Dora Wallace and Jessica Dean played as young society ladies, the protegees of Lady St. Mallory (Celia Ghiloni). Ruby was cast as Lady Crichton. The show was also included in the season’s repertoire in Adelaide, and all three actresses enhanced the gladness of the entertainment, wrote the Adelaide Advertiser.9
In late December 1907 the New Musical Comedy Company arrived in New Zealand with some seventy-five members, comprising a few old favourites but for the majority of the principals it was their first visit there. The principal soprano was Amy Murphy and Reginald Kenneth the leading baritone, with Victor Gouriet, Myles Clifton and Daisy Wallace as the main comedians. Ruby was making her fourth tour to New Zealand.
The Christmas season of nineteen nights opened at Wellington’s Opera House on Boxing Day with a production of The Blue Moon, followed by Lady Madcap with Ruby named as one of the Archery Ladies. Also included in the company’s tour repertoire was The Little Michus, with Ruby cast as Mme Rousselin and, in a later show, Mme. de St. Phar, both of whom were guests of General des Ifs when he awaited the arrival of his daughter. Ruby as Mary Methuen in The Girl from Kay’s, and Lady Marjory Crichton in Three Little Maids were other roles she played during the season.
After the New Zealand tour Ruby performed with Williamson’s New Musical Comedy Company at Hobart’s Theatre Royal, at His Majesty’s Theatre Brisbane and in Newcastle where Ruby maintained the roles she had enjoyed in New Zealand. Of particular note was the Archery song in Lady Madcap and the vivacious acting of Ruby, Ada Page and Blanche Farey as Lady Mallory’s protegees in Three Little Maids and the exceedingly tuneful sextette ‘The Town and Country Mice’ which they sang with the ‘Little Maids’ (Daisie Wallace, Amy Murphy, Alma Barber) in the first act.
Cast list for The Red Mill, Melbourne, 1908
State Library Victoria, Melbourne
The Twentieth Century Girls in The Red Mill
From Otago Witness, 3 March 1909, p.48
Ruby next appeared in J.C. Williamson’s Australian premiere of Henry Blossom and Victor Herbert’s The Red Mill which opened in Sydney at the Theatre Royal on 11 July 1908, then followed at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre on 29 August and Adelaide’s Theatre Royal on 17 October. Ruby played Flora, an artist’s model, and when The Red Mill was later staged in New Zealand, she was cast as Mabel, one of Joshua Pennyfeather’s (a London solicitor) daughters.
Another New Zealand tour followed with Ruby as a member of a 100 strong Williamson Musical Comedy Company which opened its Christmas attractions of The Red Mill and the Prince of Pilsen in Auckland in December 1908, ending the tour in Invercargill in late March. During the tour, in addition to playing Mabel, Ruby was cast as Myrtle Mince in a revival of The Belle of New York, but had no named part in Williamson’s production of the Prince of Pilsen.
The Prince of Pilsen preceded The Red Mill, and for a musical comedy the cast was small and provided few opportunities for company members other than a handful of principals. The piece did however give opportunities to Ruby and fellow chorus members, including a notable tableau which was provided in the song ‘Tales of the Cities’ in which twenty ‘attractive willowy formed girls’ were appropriately dressed to represent Australian capital cities and principal New Zealand cities, with the scene being accompanied by apt verses from Olive Godwin.
After a very successful tour of New Zealand the company performed the first of six revivals of The Belle of New York at Adelaide’s Theatre Royal on 30 March 1909, with Ruby in the role of Myrtle Mince. An Easter season in the West followed with performances of The Red Mill, the Prince of Pilsen and The Belle of New York.
During their season in Western Australia, the Musical Comedy Company provided entertainment, stalls, side shows, and musical numbers in a Saturday charity event in aid of the Children’s Hospital Fund. Also, as part of the entertainment the ladies of The Red Mill Company played a costume cricket match against members of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association. Ruby was a member of the ‘Red Mill’ team. On the Sunday evening members of the Company gave a concert which raised £200 for the Hospital Fund.
Ruby Armfield
From Sydney Mail, 12 February 1913, p.21
The Twilight Years, 1911-1918
The next two Williamson productions, the outstandingly successful Our Miss Gibbs and equally successful The Quaker Girl gave Ruby the chance for more significant roles. Our Miss Gibbs premiered at Her Majesty’s Theatre Sydney on 24 September 1910, running for some eight and a half months. After Sydney it played in other capitals with equal success. Williamson had engaged Gaiety Theatre actress Blanche Browne in the name-part of Mary Gibbs, the much admired ‘star’ girl at Garrod’s store in London, Andrew Higginson played Lord Eynsford, the love interest in the guise of a bank clerk, and Nellie Wilson was Madame Jeanne the French milliner at the store. Of lesser ‘named’ roles there were four Irish Colleens and six Country Ladies in the cast, but Ruby was listed in the theatre program as one of many store girls. Was this a come down for Ruby? Or maybe it was thought that Ruby’s fine voice would benefit the chorus of store girls
Indeed, Ruby was part of the opening chorus of the first act which is staged in the interior of Garrod’s store and following the rendition of ‘We will be quick to do our shopping’, Ruby with other animated shop girls announce the entry of Miss Gibbs in a lively number:
Garrod’s! Garrod’s! if you are lacking
Whiting or blacking,
Lace or sacking,
Garrod’s! Garrods! all things are there!
Broaches, coaches,
Tresses of hair!
Rosies, cosies,
Silk underwear—
Ev’rything for ev’rybody—
Everywhere!
The popularity of the show with theatregoers saw it revived in Melbourne in December and in Sydney as the Christmas attraction. The original cast reappeared on both occasions.
Florence Vie as Mrs Farquhar the impecunious ‘woman of fashion’; Bertie Wright as Timothy Gibbs; and Langford Kirby as the Hon. Hughie Pierrepoint, an amateur crook, in Our Miss Gibbs. The Sun (Sydney), 26 September 1910, p.3. Caricatures by Will Donald.
In early December 1910, Perth’s Daily News carried an item that Ruby in partnership with Daisy Coppin (youngest daughter of George Coppin) had formed the Australian Mascottes, a vaudeville song and dance sketch act, noting their overseas success, especially in Honolulu and further bookings for Seattle.10 No reference to the Australian Mascottes can be found in American newspapers, but there are several advertisements and comment on the Mascotte Sisters (an acrobatic, song and dance act). Was this Coppin’s team? The Sisters first appeared at The Novelty Theatre, Honolulu on 12 October 1910, having recently arrived on the ‘Makura from the colonies’.11 In the January of the following year the Mascotte Sisters performed at Seattle’s Pantages Theatre.12 But the Sisters were not named.
On this the following snippet in the ‘Melbourne Chatter’ column in the Bulletin of 25 May 1911 is helpful as Dancer Daisy is said to be ‘with the Mascottes Sisters, now showing in San Francisco’, and that ‘they expect to arrive in New York in time to meet “Aunt Lucy”, as they affectionately term Mrs Bland Holt’.13 But there is no mention of Ruby, indeed due to her commitments with J.C. Williamson’s productions the unnamed sister could not be her!
Buoyed by the local success of Our Miss Gibbs, Williamson took the show and cast to New Zealand, opening its season in Auckland on 11 September 1911 and concluding at Invercargill in late November. Ruby was again in the ‘shop girls’ chorus but took on a principal part when the piece was staged in Dunedin when she was called upon at very short notice, due to the indisposition of Nellie Wilson, to play the small but amusing part of Madame Jeanne, the Milliner at Garrod’s store, including a solo rendition of the bright number, ‘Hats—What’s a Dress Without a Hat’, which appealed to the ladies in the audience. The Evening Star reported that ‘this young lady filled the breach in a most satisfactory manner’.14
Blanche Browne in The Quaker Girl, from program, Melbourne, 1912
State Library Victoria, Melbourne
Jessie Lonnen as Phoebe and Bertie Wright as Jeremiah in The Quaker Girl
State Library Victoria, Melbourne
Following Our Miss Gibbs Williamson’s next offering was The Quaker Girl which opened at her Majesty’s Sydney on 13 January 1912. Prudence, the Quaker Girl, was played by Blanche Browne, Olive Godwin was the exiled Bonapartist Princess Mathilde and Jessie Lonnen was cast as Phoebe, maid to Princess Mathilde. The lyrics were by Adrian Ross, with music by Lionel Monckton, which received mixed reviews, with some describing it as sparking and pleasing while others thought it lacked originality. Nevertheless, the show was full of musical numbers and good choruses (of which Ruby was part), including the entrance of the Quakers and double chorus in ‘Quakers Meeting’, ‘On Revient de Chantily’ and ‘Come to the Ball’ (chorus with Frank Greene (Prince Carlo).
Ruby played a more substantial role in The Quaker Girl when called upon as an understudy to Ivy Bickford. When The Quaker Girl was performed in Melbourne at Her Majesty’s, (commencing 13 July) then Adelaide, Perth and its reappearance in Sydney in November, Ivy Bickford, the young Melbourne born soprano, played the part of Princess Mathilde with success. Ruby, as Bickford’s understudy, played Mathilde when she replaced an unwell Bickford, although it is unclear how many performances Ruby played the part, but she showed herself thoroughly at home in the role, her solo ‘O, Time, Time!’, her duet ‘Wonderful’ with Andrew Higginson and Quartet, ‘A Runaway Match’ were rendered with confidence. The critic for the Sydney Referee commenting on Ruby’s performance wrote:
Taking the place of Miss Ivy Bickford who was ill, Miss Ruby Armfield looked well as the Princess, and used her fine voice with telling effect.15
Black and White Sextette—‘Tell Me Pretty Maiden’. From the Australasian (Melbourne), 19 October 1912, p.65.
In October 1912, The Royal Comic Opera Company revived Florodora at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne, later playing in Sydney in early December and continuing as the Christmas and New Year attraction. Other than Grace Palotta as Lady Hollyrood, the principals were entirely new, with Blanche Browne as Dolores, Jessie Lonnen as Angela Gilfain, Leslie Holland as Cyrus Gilfain and Andrew Higginson as Captain Donegal. In this production Ruby played the part of Cynthia Belmont, one of Angela Gilfain’s English friends, a change from the Mamie Rowe character she had played in the 1902 production.
There was plenty of bright music in Florodora and many of the songs were enthusiastically welcomed by the audience, especially the memorable song in the second act, ‘Tell Me Pretty Maiden’ performed by Ruby and Angela Gilfain’s other English girl friends who were decked out in stunning black and white dresses and matching head pieces, complemented by the white suits and straw hats of Cyrus Gilfain’s clerks. Although the Bulletin thought the six maidens were handicapped by tight skirts, but, even so were more satisfactory than the clerks.16 Regardless, the audience was captivated by the double sextette when the clerks sang:
Tell me pretty maiden,
Are there any more at home like you?
And the English girls answered
There are a few, kind sir,
But simple girls, and proper, also.
In their review of the Sydney performance the Sunday Times critic expressed surprise that Ruby who sang so well as the Princess in The Quaker Girl had a very small part as Cynthia Belmont.17
‘Take me for …..!’—Delia Dale and Chorus of Country Ladies. The London cast (with Phyllis Dare). From The Sunshine Girl souvenir published by George Robertson & Co., Melbourne, 1913. State Library Victoria, Melbourne.
The Sunshine Girl was staged for the first time in Australia by the Royal Comic Opera Company at Her Majesty’s Sydney on 18 January 1913, later playing in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. What plot there was had to do with a soap factory, a young owner (in the guise of a factory hand) and a pretty work-girl from the Perfume Department. The show was generally thought of as a series of strung together comedy numbers, rather than a musical comedy. Blanche Browne played the lead role of Delia Dale, a Sunshine soap factory girl from the perfume department, Frank Greene was Vernon Blundell, the factory owner, Leslie Holland was Lord Bicester a young stockbroker and Ivy Bickford played Emmeline. While it was a cast dominated by imported performers as principals, some local talent played small parts, including Gladys Moncrieff who was one of the Department Heads at the soap factory; it was the start of Moncrieff’s long and successful career.
Blanche Browne, 1911. Photo by Talma Studios, Sydney
Private collection
Ruby played the part of the Hon. Miss Grey, and was also named as understudy for Blanche Browne. To be named as the understudy for the principal lead was positive management recognition for Ruby and involved her having command of the several songs in Delia’s repertoire including, ‘Love’, ‘Ladies’ and ‘A Tiny Touch’ in Act 1 and ‘Take Me For’ and ‘The Argentine’ in Act 2. Disappointingly, for Ruby nothing much came of this.
Miss Hook of Holland, which opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre Sydney on 14 June 1913, is principally concerned with the fortunes and misfortunes of Mr Hook, a distiller who loses a valuable liqueur recipe, and the love interests of Sally, his daughter. Olive Godwin played the lead part of Sally (Miss Hook), Leslie Holland excelled as Mr. Hook and Jessie Lonnen was Mina the Hook’s maid. Ruby was cast as Greta, a market girl, and when the show was revived the following month at Sydney’s Criterion Theatre, Ruby received a favourable mention for her graceful dancing.18 Ruby’s ability to play a variety of roles was evident when the show played in New Zealand in late 1913 when she took the role of Gretchen the Manageress of Mr Hook’s Liqueur Distillery, a part played by Flossie Dickenson in the 1913 Sydney production.
Cast list for Miss Hook of Holland from program, Melbourne, 1913
State Library Victoria, Melbourne
Jessie Lonnen as Mina, the Hook’s Maid
State Library Victoria, Melbourne
The next attraction for The Royal Comic Opera Company was a season of revivals at Adelaide’s Theatre Royal opening with The Sunshine Girl on 21 June, followed by three favourite musical comedies with Ruby appearing in a change of roles. Ruby played Pansy Pinns in The Belle of New York and Lucy Ling in Florodora, and in The Quaker Girl she played Diane (a role previously played by Nellie Wilson) the designing Parisian actress who sought to bring about a break-up between the Quaker Girl and Tony Chute (Leslie Holland)—‘Miss Armfield who was assigned the character (of Diane) gave an excellent portrayal of the part.’19
The Company reappeared in New Zealand for a short season from September to November 1913 with a repertoire of four of their most successful productions—The Quaker Girl, The Sunshine Girl, Miss Hook of Holland and The Belle of New York. Some 150 artists joined the tour, with Grace Palotta, Blanche Browne and Olive Godwin among the principals.
Ruby was again in the tour party, and played several minor named parts, including the Hon. Miss Grey in The Sunshine Girl, Gretchen in Miss Hook of Holland and Pansy Pinns in The Belle of New York. At the Opera House in mid-October Olive Godwin was unable to take her part as Princess Mathilde in The Quaker Girl and her part as the exiled princess was capably filled by Ruby. Ruby’s excellent voice was well suited to some of the tuneful ditties, wrote the Manawata Standard.20 Ruby was well acquainted with the role as It will be recalled she had previously substituted for Ivy Bickford as the Princess when The Quaker Girl played at Her Majesty’s Theatre Sydney in November 1912.
In sharp contrast to traditional musical comedy theatre, on 20 December 1913 as the holiday attraction, Williamson staged Come Over Here at Her Majesty’s Theatre Sydney. Advertised as the first revue staged in Australia, the cast was drawn mainly from the Royal Comic Opera Company, together with Englishman Jack Cannot as the principal comedian and Daisy Jerome an American diseuse. Based on the British production it was a revue of topical items laced with humour and satire, described as a mixture of pantomime, vaudeville, burlesque and more. Most reviews thought the show lacked appeal with the Bulletin particularly sceptical.21
Ruby was involved in a number of sketches—in Act I, Scene V, A Theatre, she played Madame Vine, in Act II, Scene VIII, The Flowers of Allah she was one of five wives, and in A Telephone Tangle, an amusing piece which was a mix up of telephone conversations between two operators and five callers situated in separate rooms. In this medley Ruby played as a pretty wife, with Leslie Holland, Jack Cannon, Olive Godwin and Violet Collinson as other characters.
Come Over Here: The ‘plank’ allowed actresses to move over the heads (and eyes) of the audience. Cartoon by Harry Julius.
From The Bulletin (Sydney), 1 January 1914, p.8.
When the revue transferred to Melbourne and Adelaide, prudent pruning and rewriting made the show more successful. One of the new features added was the burlesqued ‘East Lynne’ performed by Alfred Andrew, Rita Nugent, William Lockhart and Ruby which was done ‘in a manner that kept the house in roars’.22
Come Over Here program
State Library Victoria, Melbourne
The Revellers
From Advertiser (Adelaide), 14 November 1917, p.2
From mid 1914 to 1918 was a lean period for Ruby, despite live theatre doing particularly well during the war years with many musical comedy productions; Williamson staged twenty new productions at Her Majesty’s Melbourne alone.23 The dearth of engagements for Ruby was most likely due to the competition posed by many young, new actresses who increasingly found favour with the Williamson management.
Diminishing engagements with Williamson saw Ruby on the program for the summer season of entertainment at the re-opening of the popular Semaphore Beach Ozone open air pavilion (South Australia) in late 1917. Ruby was announced on the program as a Dramatic Soprano, late of J.C. Williamson’s, Grand Comic Opera Companies.24 And on 20 February 1918 Ruby contributed to the Northcote and Preston Scottish Society concert at the Northcote Town Hall with ‘My Ain Folk’ and ‘Annie Laurie’. In response to audience demands she added extra numbers.25
Poster for the first Australian production of
Oh! Oh! Delphine
National Library of Australia, Canberra
Reginald Roberts and Florence Young in
Oh! Oh! Delphine
From New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, 15 May 1919
Ruby did return to the stage and rejoined The Royal Comic Opera Company’s in their production of Oh! Oh! Delphine which held its Australian premiere at Her Majesty’s, Melbourne on Saturday 7 September 1918. Gladys Moncrieff played the name part of Delphine, the heroine, Olive Godwin as Simone with Reginald Roberts as the artist Victor Jolibeau, the love interest while Florence Young played a somewhat small part of Bimboula, a Persian carpet seller. Ruby was cast as Amandine one of the six ‘beauteous artist’s models’ who travelled with Jolibeau. The show was not a success, insufficient catchy songs was blamed for the short run of four weeks. It later played in Sydney with more success, ending on 17 January 1919.
The ‘Posing of Venus’ song by Ruby and her fellow models in the first act was singled out for praise in reviews—the grouping of the six models for the song was a novel and splendid chorus effect, wrote the Bulletin.26 And, when performed in Sydney a gushy review wrote that in the fascinating air ‘Posing of Venus’ cleverly scored with harp, strings and brass, the six models in their maize-coloured frocks, with blue swathed waist belts, formed kaleidoscopic groups that pleased the eye.27
Oh! Oh! Delphine—The Models and Victor Jolibeau (with Ruby as Amandine). From Punch, 19 September 1918, p.19.
It appears that Ruby’s last time on stage was in the Sydney season of Oh! Oh! Delphine in mid-January 1919. It was a time which coincided with the first detection of the virulent influenza virus in Melbourne and which soon spread to New South Wales and South Australia affecting all walks of life, including stage productions with consequences for the employment of stage performers. As the situation worsened the health authorities closed theatres, not permitting them to re-open until early March 1919, a decision that would have impacted on any career decision by Ruby and others in the theatrical industry. Ruby’s forthcoming marriage during 1920 most likely also influenced her decision, as did waning stage opportunities .
There was no announcement that Ruby was retiring from the stage into private life, there was no fanfare! Ruby was now in her mid-thirties and had been on the stage for some eighteen years since her debut in 1901; an achievement in such a highly competitive industry.28 Ruby’s stage career was at a time when theatre producers, particularly J.C. Williamson placed considerable importance on the use of imported artistes of repute, mainly from England but also from America. This made it difficult for many exceptionally talented local actresses to secure ’leading principal’ roles and was much harder for those not in the front row on the musical comedy stage, a group in which Ruby sat.
Sadly, Ruby’s retirement was cut short when she contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, a disease she suffered with for two years before she died on 26 February 1928, aged 42, a patient at the Greenvale Sanatorium, Broadmeadows, Victoria.
While Ruby Armfield did not become a principal star, she typified the talented, hardworking performer who was crucial to musical comedy theatre during the early years of the 20th century. Ruby’s career followed the path of a gifted actress who could transition between chorus girl to minor character roles to that of an understudy, contributing significantly to the overall quality of musical comedy theatre throughout her long career.
‘No girl, unless she possesses outstanding merit will get out of the chorus’.29
Ruby did!
Endnotes
1. Brisbane Courier, 25 August 1906, p.6
2. Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 5 September 1906, p.629
3. Punch (Melbourne), 6 September 1906, p.3
4. The West Australian (Perth), 22 October 1906, p.5
5. Kalgoorlie Miner, 1 November 1906, p. 6
6. Advertiser (Adelaide), 12 November 1906, p.7
7. Gadfly (Adelaide), 28 November 1906, p.10
8. Chronicle (Adelaide), 5 October 1907, p.60
9. Adelaide Advertiser, 18 September 1907, p.8
10. Daily News (Perth), 9 December 1910, p.2
11. The Hawaiian Star, 12 October 1910, p.6
12. The Seattle Star, 14 January 1911, p.5
13. The Bulletin (Sydney) 25 May 1911, p.22
14. Evening Star (Sydney), 21 November 1911, p.6
15. Referee (Sydney), 27 November 1912, p.16
16. The Bulletin (Sydney) 17 October 1912, p.11
17. Sunday Times (Sydney), 8 December 1912, p.2
18. Sydney Morning Herald, 21 July, 1913 p.7
19. The Register (Adelaide), 4 July 1913 p.8
20. Manawata Standard, 18 October 1913, p.6
21. See The Bulletin (Sydney), 25 December 1913, p.8
22. Referee (Sydney), 27 May 1914 p.15
23. Elisabeth Kumm, ‘Theatre in Melbourne, 1914-17: The best, the brightest and the latest’, La Trobe Journal, No. 97, March 2016
24. Advertiser (Adelaide) 14 November 1917, p.2
25. Preston Leader, 23 February 1918, p.2
26. The Bulletin (Sydney) 26 September 1918, p. 9
27. Sydney Morning Herald, 9 December 1918, p.5
28. Edmund Fisher, ‘The Business Side of Drama – How a Theatre is Run’, Lone Hand (Sydney), 1 July 1909, p.241ff. In 1909 some 355 actors and actresses were on J.C. Williamson’s salary list.
29. Egbert T. Russell, ‘The Ladies of the Chorus’, Lone Hand, 1 July 1909
References
Revusical Ballets & Chorus, Australian Variety Theatre Archive Popular Culture Entertainment: 1859-1930, https://ozvta.com/revusical-ballets-chorus/
Vinia de Loitte, Gilbert & Sullivan Opera in Australia 1879-1933, Ninth Edition
Veronica Kelly, ‘Come Over Here! The Local Hybridisation of the International “Ragtime Revues” in Australia’, Popular Entertainment Studies, Vol. 4, Issue 1, 2013, pp 24-49
The Play Pictorial, Volumes 9 and 13, The Strand Pictorial Publishing Co., Ltd.,London, 1909
Elisabeth Kumm, ‘Florodora’, On Stage, Theatre Heritage Australia, June 2015
Trove
Papers Past New Zealand
Chronicling America, Library of Congress (historic newspapers)
